Mastermind? Really?

Roberto E. Rosales/The Albuquerque Journal/AP

It drives me crazy when I see a news story about the capture of some bumbling group of criminals and their leader is referred to as the Mastermind behind their scheme. If they were such a Mastermind, why were they caught? And it's not just their being caught - it always seems to me to a lame idea in the first place. The latest story is this one:

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/17/1149464953/new-mexico-shooting-politicians-solomon-pena

There were a number of shootings at government officials house in New Mexico. It turned out all of the victims were Democrats. As evidence was gathered and suspects rounded up, the one behind all the shootings was determined to be a Republican candidate who had lost the election and claimed it was stolen from him. Sound familiar?

Among the stupid things he did in organizing the scheme was his participation in at least one of the shootings and his sending out a picture of himself with one of the other suspects. One of the suspects was pulled over with his car loaded with guns because he already had an arrest warrant out for him. It always seems like criminals can't just lie low when they are already in trouble - they seem to be compelled to get into even more trouble.

How is this being a Mastermind? Why are these people given credit as if they are so smart? As if they make such detailed, infallible plans? I am hoping that, someday, the news organizations and the police and government officials will start calling these people the correct thing - stupid idiots.

The word Master Mind (two words at that time) is said to have been coined by a man named Napoleon Hill in his 1925 book “The Law of Success." One citation of this is found in this link. He listed the benefits of working cooperatively with a a group of business colleagues. But the idea of a master mind group goes back even further to Benjamin Franklin who organized a group of his friends to meet regularly to help each other improve themselves and to also cooperate on projects for the good of their community (the Junto Club he organized helped start the first lending library, the University of Pennsylvania and a hospital. More at this link. Now, that's what I call a Mastermind! If only our modern criminal masterminds had been members of a real Mastermind Group or even a church where sinful people can come together to help out both themselves and their neighbors.

I'm not the only one saying that the use of Mastermind in these cases is not only wrong but it also an insult to the really smart people in the world. A much better written blog than mine (the Oxford University Press blog) brought this up back in 2016. It pointed to another pretty smart guy who decried the use of this word to describe horrible people. This article points to a different origin to the word but, again, it started as a positive association. We need to keep it that way. This term should never be used for a violent, evil person again.

I'm up to my old tricks

It's been six days since I last posted and I'm starting to worry about myself. Am I just going to go back to my old ways? Am I going to miss the opportunity to write down my thoughts and what is happening in my life - again? Maybe. I don't have a good track record but today is another day and I'm going to try again.

As I look back on my previous post, I realize that I missed the point of the church sign I mentioned. Here it is again:

"Lots of people want to work for God but only as an adviser."

My post treated this quote like we just ignore what God wants us to do but now I see (I think) that what the sign means is many of us want to tell God what to do or, at least, offer suggestions on what He should be doing. We want to advise Him about what is right or what His priorities should be.

"God, that guy really needs to be punished." "God, I really could use a new car." Perhaps not quite so blatantly but we all say, "God, help me make it though this problem," often adding, "And I'll never get in this situation again." Or, trying to be thankful, praying, "God, I thank you that I am not as bad a person as that guy over there." Where have we heard that before? Hint: Luke 18:9-14

I'm not just pointing my finger here. I do this, too, and probably more often than you. But I am going to try, again, to change the way I work for God. Of course, a big part of that involves communication and that means I need to remind myself who I am praying to. God loves us. He is our Heavenly Father. "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." But I need to remind myself that I am praying to the God who created the Universe. He is not merely my buddy. I am praying to the great, good God who is worthy of my praise. I need to confess my sin and other failings to Him and to be ready to change. I need to thank Him for all the things he has already given me and for sending His son Jesus to save me and take away those sins. Finally, I need to ask him for wisdom and to know what He would ask me to do.I need to ask for His help in doing the things He wants me to do. I need to ask for courage when the things He asks of me are difficult.

And I need to rededicate myself to writing in this blog as often as I can to remind me of what has gone before and to refine my thoughts by putting them in print. Some people say your thoughts are not worth anything if you can't put them into words. That may be too harsh but I'm going to use it to motivate me.

 

Church sign from years ago

When I was still working, I rode my scooter on back roads to work because the main road was a four-lane highway and the speed limit of 55 MPH was just beyond the limit of my scooter. And no one really went 55 on that road. So, the few times I took that road, cars and trucks would be whizzing by me and sometimes I felt like I would be blown over.

On one of the back roads was the small Cataumet United Methodist Church with a sign that often had interesting sayings on it. I wrote about this before in a post titled, "A short post about an interesting sign". I haven't been past it for about two years so I don't know if they still have the sign out front. I hope they do. It was always something fun and it led to many conversations at work.

The sign I wanted to mention is from March, 2015. I wrote a draft of this past back then but didn't finish it until now.

"Lots of people want to work for God but only as an adviser."

As Christians, we say we want to do God's work. We say we are Jesus' followers. We say, as in the old hymn, "Where He leads me I will follow." But, as the sign says, we like to pick and choose what we do. We like to have veto power. Our pastor recently had a sermon about the need to listen and open our hearts to God's leading and how important it is to make a decision and that means being willing to do what it takes to do what God asks of us. I have done this a number of times and it turns out that this is not usually as hard as it seems. God is not out to punish us saying, "Oh, so you don't like to travel. You don't like to be in new situations. OK, then. I'm going to call you to be a missionary."

What I have found is that usually, it is something I have a gift for already. Or it is something he has shown me and has prepared me for. He gave me the opportunity to move from the place I grew up to Cape Cod. But before that, my parents had brought me to New England on vacation and I fell in love with it. I always felt that I was meant to live here.

He gave me the opportunity to become the choir director of a small church. It was a big commitment in time and energy but God gave me a musical gift and a love of singing and it was an easy change to make. This happens to most people. It can be easy to feel like you don't want to change but it is both an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to do God's work. I'm hoping that in future posts I can tell about some more of these kinds of things that God has asked of me. And maybe, if I'm courageous enough, I can also list some of the times I didn't.

Trying to save a squirrel didn't go so well

The squirrel we found

In August last year, when I had our dog, Asuna, out running around the yard, she found something interesting. Now, normally, she would chase a squirrel and when they would inevitably climb a tree to escape, she would leap as if she could just fly up and pluck it from the branch it was taunting her from. But in this case, she was hesitant. She sniffed it and looked a little worried. I don't know if it was because it was so still or if it smelled like it was in trouble. She let me check it out without worrying that I might take it away. But I thought I'd just leave it there because I'd heard that the mother would come back and get it. But then I noticed a bunch of ants around it and it was twitching and I thought maybe they were biting at it and it was reacting. I couldn't allow that. So, I picked it up and got all the ants off it. I put it up in the crook of the tree so its mother could find it but then had second thoughts.

I ended up putting it in a small box with some cloth and got some milk and dabbed it around it's mouth. It licked it and I could see it swallow so my wife found a dropper we would have used to give the kids some liquid medicine and fed it milk through that. I had to go very slowly until it realized that the milk was availabe and then I could see it licking and swallowing. I gave it milk until it stopped swallowing and put it back in the box. I did that every hour or so until bedtime. I didn't know where to put it to keep our pets from bothering it so I put it in our unheated garage. I made the decision to not get up in the middle of the night to feed it and just left it alone. I figured if it wasn't alive in the morning, that would tell me that it was beyond help.

Well, the next morning, it had burrowed under the cloth and was still moving when I touched it so I started giving it milk again. My wife had a doctor's appointment that day and I drove her there and then stayed out in the car feeding the squirrel while I waited. That's when she took the picture you see above. This continued through the day and then I thought it was better that I take to the Cape Wildlife Center so my son drove me there while I took care of our little friend. When we got there, it was raining like last time but no tornadoes this time. We had to wait in line behind a number of other rescues. When our turn came, we gave them the information and a donation and they gave us a card with a reference number and a phone number to check on the progress of the little squirrel.

When we got home, Asuna sniffed and sniffed me and seemed to wonder what I'd done with her new friend. I had been letting her see it when I fed it and she was very careful. I think see missed it already - just as I did. I kind of wished I had kept it here a little longer but I figured the Wildlife Center would have better facilities and the right food for it. I had a hard time waiting for a full day to call for a status check. When I did, I got bad news that the little squirrel didn't make it. That's all the information they had. Then the guilt hit me. "I could have done that well myself," I thought. "They were probably too busy to take proper care." "Why didn't they just refuse to take it if they were not going to save it?"

It's death hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. When something has depended on you and you take the time to help it, it does hurt if things don't work out. And that was just part of two days for me. I felt like I had let the little squirrel down. I'll tell you one thing - if Asuna ever finds another baby squirrel, I'm going to take care of it myself. I'm gathering up the information I need and looking for the supplies I need to keep in stock.

Saving the bunnies

Not our bunnies but this was their size

This happened back in 2019 but I wanted to write it down before I forget it.

We have a lot of rabbits around our yard and where you have rabbits, you have rabbit nests and rabbit babies. The rabbits here are pretty dumb. Their nests are very shallow and not well hidden. Our dog finds them easily and we have to keep her away from them until they grow up enough to leave the nest. Then, according to our dog, comes the fun part where she chases them all around until they realize it's dangerous and they go other places that are safer. Too bad the mother rabbits forget this when it's time to have the babies.

But in July that year, one really dumb rabbit mother built her nest right behind our house. There was no way to keep our dog away from them in this case. Every bit of advice I got was to NOT move the babies but I couldn't just leave them there, either. So, I gathered the four of them up in a box and put them where our dog couldn't get to them until I could figure out what to do.

I found that there is a Cape Wildlife Center in the town of Barnstable not too far from us. Well, before I could call them, we got a tremendous rain storm while I was at work. I worried that the box I had them in would collect water and drown them. So, I took off work, rushed home, picked up the bunnies and started to drive them to the Wildlife Center. The rain was picking up and the rain was coming down harder than I'd seen in a long time. The roads were really treacherous and I had to make a few detours around flooded roads or slowly drive through high water. The winds were screaming and a lot of trees were down, too. I finally found the Wildlife Center and was happy to see cars in the parking area.

But when I got to the door, it was locked. I thought maybe I was at the wrong building so I dashed between a few buildings and tried a number of doors as I was drenched by the still increasing rain. Finally, I found a side door that was open and I went in. I looked around and saw signs that people had been there - half finished coffee, glasses left on desks, lights left on and other things. It was like a scene from The Twilight Zone. I put the box with the bunnies beside a desk with a coffee cup and glasses on it and left a $20 bill to help with their care. I wrote a quick note on a piece of (what I hoped was) scrap paper. I looked around a bit more for anyone but left when I found no one.

It was an even worse ride back to work but I made it OK. I wrote an email to the Wildlife Center and continued with work. Later I heard that there had been tornado warnings (on Cape Cod???) and that the folks at the Wildlife Center had been sheltering from the storm. I got this note back:

"I'm sorry we missed you! We were all here, but the police dept called and asked us to shelter in place because of the storm, so we were in the basement. We did receive the rabbits and they are in care now in our cottontail ward."

I wonder if they heard me tromping around above them? I guess not. Later, I found out that a tornado had touched down just to the south of the Wildlife Center and I realized how fortunate I was. The bunnies didn't realize that their lives were in the hands of a mad man.

The mistake-filled demonstration - that worked

When I first started working for the company that I retired from recently, we didn't have a sales department or a marketing department (this was back in the late 1980s). We did some advertising in magazines that were read by people who would probably buy our product but the biggest reason people bought our products was that other people told them about our products. I could spend a long time trying to explain what our product did but I will try to keep it simple.

Our product was a small (less than 3 inches by 5 inches and some even smaller) computer board that could run from batteries and could be used to collect sensor data (temperature, humidity, air pressure, movement, sound or any sensor or transducer that produces a voltage or digital pulses) or to control other electrical equipment (turn motors on and off, turn lights on and off, send commands or data to another computer or the Internet). They were used by many companies and universities but one of our biggest customers at that time was close by - the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) on Cape Cod. Many times, their experiments were run in remote locations on the ocean, under the ocean or in inhospitable places like a jungle, a desert or the arctic. WHOI's equipment would use our board to run the experiment. It would time the actions of the experiment and collect data from the experiment. Then, they would come back and pick up the equipment and read the data in their lab. Or the data may have been transmitted back to their lab by radio or satellite. Our boards were very flexible because you wrote a small program to organize what what happening when.

So, once in a while, all the engineers (all four of us) would take our latest products to demonstrate their capabilities to our old customers and some possible new customers. These folks were mostly scientists. They would later design elaborate controllers for their experiments but in the early stages of a project, they could buy our general purpose controllers to run their experiments until they nailed down what they really needed. They liked our boards because they were easy to use and very (very) low power so batteries would last a very long time. So, usually, our boss (the owner of the company and chief designer of the boards) would do a demonstration to show them how things worked. He was brilliant but didn't use the boards all the time. But he was a respected scientist himself and knew many of the WHOI scientists so it seemed logical that he would do the demo.

Our boards came with a built-in operating system and could be programmed in BASIC `(and later C and even later a Java-like language) so it was easy to pick up. "Doing the demo" consisted of typing a short program on a desk-top computer and sending it to our board which would then respond by sending information back to the desk-top computer with the information you requested.

He'd start out simply by having it display the current temperature. Then he'd use a little math to convert the default Celsius temperature into Fahrenheit. Then he put his finger on the temperature sensor and show that the temperature had, indeed, changed. Then he'd get fancier. He'd program a simple loop to read and display temperatures over and over as he held and released the temperature sensor showing the temperature change. Then he'd add a delay in the loop so the temperatures weren't displayed too quickly because, really, the temperature doesn't change that fast and if you are storing the data, you don't want to use up all of the memory so fast. With each step, he'd add functionality to make this simple board act more and more like a well designed experimental controller. But as the additional program code became more intricate, he'd start making mistakes. The first time I saw this, I gasped - thinking that he'd ruined the whole thing.

But he'd correct himself right away and quickly make the change he needed. Sometimes, the errors were more subtle and it would take a little longer to fix the problem and sometime the Woods Hole scientists themselves would offer suggestions. He'd always find the problem and, once it had been identified, fix it quickly. You could see the scientists leaning forward when a problem was found and then relaxing back in their chairs as it was fixed. By the end of the demo, they had seen a pretty complete data logging system designed right before their eyes and we usually had a lot of excited people gathered around to order some of our computer boards. They had seen how easy it was to come up with an idea, try and modify it simply and easily.

It was almost like listening to a sermon when the preacher lists a problem or asks a question that the congregation has been wondering about and then shows how the Bible has the answer or Jesus had a parable about just the problem they were wondering about. Some preachers raise their voice and sometimes they would lower their voice and the people would lean forward to hear the answer. But just listing a bunch of answers doesn't make the listener learn anything. Keeping the audience engaged helps them learn how to think about the problem instead of just hearing the answer.

By the way, our boards were available long before the current Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards were available but our boards were a lot more expensive than those new boards. We gave lifetime, free support for our boards and no one made (or makes) a lower power solution than we did. But the company's focus changed and our boards are no longer produced. But I'll never forget the exciting demos our boss did. He knew how to hook a crowd.

The first adult joke that I understood

Is this something we all go through when we are young? You hear a joke that an adult tells but you don't understand why it's funny. You know it's a joke because some of the people hearing it laughed but you don't understand why it is funny. I was always too embarrassed to ask why it was funny. Or else, if my mother was around, I knew not to ask about it because of the look on her face. Being quite introverted, I didn't even ask my friends. I figured if they didn't know why it was funny, then why ask? Or, if they did know why it was funny, they would just make fun of me for not knowing. When you're young and trying to establish your place in the world, you don't need any missteps or back steps.

Anyway, it was a Sunday because that was the only time we went to this particular restaurant. It was pretty fancy and was a long drive away from home. It was a big deal when we went to eat there. We often dressed up to go there. It wasn't the kind of place where you would hear adult jokes. It wasn't the kind of place where you would hear loud talking. It was always good food and it was almost always crowded.

As you can tell from the image, I went to the men's room. This was also a place I had never seen graffiti before, either. But this day, there was something written neatly, and in not too large a type, right above the urinal I was using:

The future of the world is in your hands.

It took me a few seconds to get it. At first I thought it was just some encouraging words - kind of like the modern, "You can be anything you want to be." But no - there was something else - and my young mind finally got it. I had had "the talk" with my father a few years before so I wasn't too young. I think it was the subtlety I most appreciated. I thought it was the funniest, most amazing joke I had ever heard. I couldn't wait to get back to the table to tell my parents. But wait. Was this something I could talk about to my parents? Could I talk about it in this restaurant? What if we all started laughing out loud? Would they throw us out? Would they just throw me out for being such a vulgar young man?

Well, I think I waited until we got out to the car. Whether it was that or I did get the courage to tell my parents at the table, I remember my parents smiling. Both because of the joke itself and because it signaled another stage in my life for them.

I also remember the first time I swore in front of my mother. I was driving her somewhere when I was home from college and needed to make a left turn in heavy traffic. As I waited, my mother asked when I was going to make the turn. I said, "I'll turn when this damned driver finally decides to get past us." I froze and missed making the turn a little longer. She just said, "So, that's what they're teaching you in college." Surprisingly, I heard my mother swear more often than my father. But I was always careful when I spoke around her after that.

My wife and I have been married for 29 years

Our wedding - 29 years ago

This is a happy day. It's a day to remember how fortunate I am. It's a day to realize that I am happier than I've ever been before. It's a day to remember how all those women I dated before my wife were correct - I wasn't the guy for them. I couldn't see it but they could. They are all better off than if I had tricked them into marrying me.

I never knew a relationship could be so relaxing, fulfilling and happy as when I started dating my wife. Before, I had always been trying to conform to what I thought the woman I was with wanted in a man. I had always been trying to not be me but someone I thought those women would like. I was uncomfortable and awkward around them because I didn't know what they wanted. Isn't that great? They weren't the right ones for me but my wife was.

Twenty nine years later

When we started dating, I was surprised how easy it was. I knew what to say because it was the things I wanted to say. I knew the things to do because it was the things I wanted to do. Of course, I took my wife-to-be's likes into consideration and talked about things she wanted to talk about, too. But those things were things I enjoyed, too. It wasn't a struggle. It wasn't scary. I didn't have to change or conform or not be myself. As a matter of fact, it was just the right thing to be myself because that's how she knew that I was the right guy.

 This was what I dreamed about for 42 years before we got married. I didn't know the specifics but it's just what I had hoped for. Marrried to someone who respects me and loves me through all the mistakes I make. When we find oursleves with a problem, we can discuss it and work it out. It's the most amazing thing in the world.

As a side, sad note, the other three people in the first picture are gone. My wife's parents (on the left) and my mother (on the right) have all passed away. My big regret is that my father died before we got married and couldn't be in that picture. So now, we are the adults in the family. Even though they were old and infirm (in later years - not here), we depended on their wisdom. We valued their opinions and listed to their advice. It's all up to us, now.

Our new car is an Electric Vehicle

Our new car

I mentioned in my post on Friday about not taking our new Chevy Bolt EUV on the long trip to New York because we weren't sure about dealing with commercial charging stations along the way. But we will be learning how to do that soon. We don't take very many long trips but when we do, we'd rather take this car. Not only are we happy to not be burning gasoline and spewing it into the air everywhere we go, but it is a very nice car to drive and to ride in. And before you say that the power plant that provides our electricity is just burning the fuel somewhere else and spewing the gases there, you would be wrong. We have solar cells on our house so the car is being charged by the sun.

Even for those people charging their electric vehicles from a coal or gas burning power plant, at least it is easier to limit the problem at that one location so that thousands of people can use power that may start off dirty but can be cleaned up in that one location - under the watchful eye of the regulators to make sure the cleaning is done corrrectly. That is much better than having all the thousands of people being responsible for keeping their internal combustion cars in good shape and tuned correctly and with a good catalytic converter. And anyway, the trend is for more electricity to be generated by clean, reneable sources. This argument is old and out dated and is mostly spread by the oil and coal companies and the people that believe their lies.

As I said above, this car is a joy to drive and to ride in. There is much more leg room than there would be in an equivalent gar burning car. And the Bolt is very well engineered. It has a long wheelbase for such a small car and gives a very comfortable ride. It is easy to handle and it is easy to park. And you have to try driving an electric vehicle some time. The engine is incredibly smooth with plenty of power when you need to accelerate quickly. The steering is terrific - the car just flows around corners with little effort to the driver steering it. And the smoothness of an electric engine is hard to believe until you've tried it. No more feeling the little jolt as the transmission shifts from one gear to another, Even though it is quick with an automatic, your car is generating no useful power during those periods. With an electric engine, the power is constant with no interruptions. It is just a much more efficient way to get motion from an energy source. And it is so quiet! The major noise we have in the cabin are the fans of the heating and cooling system. You do hear wind noise and the tires on the pavement but that's not much.

Another nice feature of an electric vehicle is the reduced maintenance costs. No more mufflers. No more oil changes. No more antifreeze. No more hoses to crack. No transmission fluid to leak. And a lot of the burden of braking is handled by turning the engine into a generator. It not only reduces wear and tear on the brakes but regenerates power and charges the batteries using the energy of the car's momentum. So, the brakes won't wear out as soon as they would with a gasoline powered car.

And to get back to the efficiency - we are getting over 3.5 miles per kilowatt-hour of energy. There are approximately 33.7 kilowatt-hours of energy in a gallon of gasoline. So, we are getting the equivalent of 118 miles per gallon with our car. Plus, the cost of that energy is much cheaper when charging our car at home. So, we are saving a lot of money when we use the Bolt compared to what we are paying for our gasoline cars.

I'll try to share more things in the future. But just know that this is the best car we've ver owned. Well, maybe the TR6 Triumph I had for a while back in the 1976 was a bit more fun (it was a convertable) but that thing was in thr shop all the time.

This guy can't be trusted

An active Vizsla

Boy, if I can't write eight straight posts on eight straight days, then what am I going to do for the rest of the year? I managed to get a post out on a very busy day (Thursday, January 5) but on a lazy day (the next day), I just couldn't do it. That points out how arbitrary my excuses are. If I don't write and post something when I plan to, I look for something to blame it on.

We made it to New York and back in good shape. We left about 8:15 AM and got back back around 5:15 PM - eight hours. What's so hard about that? Yes, the traffic was heavy (how do people do that every day?) and it was raining off and on the whole way. But things went well, too. Our old car ran well and our dog was wonderful. We did need stop a few times more than we normally would so that she could walk on her leash to stretch her legs and do her duty. But she slept a lot and just looked out the window a lot. She is a very active dog who likes to run (see the picture) but is also very understanding. She trusts us that we'll let her get enough exercise later. She is a Vizsla which is a very active breed. They are very fast, too, so you don't dare let them loose if there is a chance that they could see or smell something interesting because they can bound away at high speed and be far away when you finally realize that a call back is needed. Her greatest joy, though, is just being with her family. She seems to be able to handle anything as long as we there to share the inconvenience with her.

My daughter had a wonderful time and is a little depressed to not be with her fiance and his family. They all really love her and enjoy being with her (who couldn't?) but life goes on and people have to work and go to school. But the fact remains - she cannot be with the man she loves and that makes it hard. We need to be more understanding when she is unhappy about the situation. I know how I am when I need to be away from my wife and children (and dog and cats). I'm a mess.

When we got home, and my wife and I were both exhausted, she asked, "How would you like to be a bus driver and have to make that trip every day?" I wouldn't and I couldn't. The same thing must be true for truck drivers. I can't imagine it and I thank God that there are people who are willing to do that and drive safely at the same time.Similarly, pilots, airline crews and train crews are amazing people. We all depend on them for so many things and we'll never be able to personally thank them. Just try to remember them in our prayers - but don't depend on me for that!

A busy day

Not our car but same model and color

My daughter, who is 20 years old, is engaged to be married. They have set no date yet because she is still in college and her fiance only has a part-time job. But they are working toward the day when they can get married and make their way through life together. We are very excited because he is a wonderful guy and we know they will be happy together. After Christmas, she went to spend a week with him and his family (his mother and sisters). The one problem is that he lives in New York and we live on Cape Cod. Another problem is that he has no car. Another problem is that my daughter doesn't have a driver's license. How did she get there? How is she getting back?

Her fiance has taken the bus here a few times. But our daughter is not ready for something like that. So, the answer is for us to drive her there and come back home and then, when it is time for her to leave, we drive down to pick her up. We do this all in one day and today is the day she is returning. It's approximately 460 miles round trip. That's not a lot for some people but it's a lot for us. Plus, there is always a ton of traffic and a lot of delays. So, while Google Maps says it should only take about 8 hours round trip, it always takes much longer than that.

Add to that the problem that we must take our dog along this time. Our son is working today and we can't leave the dog outside all that time or inside all that time. We have taken our dog on long trips to Vermont and New Hampshire before but this will be longer than those and we no longer have the car we used then. We sold our Ford Escape and bought a Chevy Bolt EUV - an electric vehicle. While we learn how to use commercial charging stations, we are not quite ready for that this time. And the back trunk/hatch area of this car is not quite as large as the Escape's area. So, we are taking my late mother-in-law's old Buick (the same year and model shown in the image above). That means when the three of us (my wife, my daughter and me) are in the car, someone will have to share the back seat with the dog. This is going to be an adventure. Fortunately, it is not snowing. It is raining but not heavily.

I notice that on Google Maps, you can have it show all the EV charging stations along the route but, as I say, we're not sure enough about doing that for this trip. But it bodes well for future trips.

This brings up a couple of subjects for future posts. As the parents of someone getting ready for marriage, we are learning a lot about that and I should be able write about that. Also, we are very excited with our new car. There is a lot to write about that, too. Stay tuned.

How I'm Going to Get Rich - Part 4

Why in the world do the manufacturers of gas appliances, especially heating systems and ovens, make them so that they cannot be used when the electrical power fails?

We live on Cape Cod and we often lose power because we get a lot of wind and we have a lot of weak trees (it's hard to get a strong tree with deep roots in sand) that like to fall onto power lines and knock them down. And when the power goes out, it can often stay off for a long time because it is difficult to get repair trucks here because they need to cross one of the two bridges that connect us to the mainland. Those bridges can be closed due to the same conditions that caused the power outage in the first place.

So, with no electricity, you can still use the gas stove as long as you have matches to light the burner. But that only works if the control that adjusts the flame height is a mechanical control. I've been seeing some more recent over-engineered stoves that control the gas with an electronic adjustment. That is madness. But with every modern oven, it seems that the thermostat is electronic. So, while you MIGHT be able to start the oven by lighting the burner with a match you then have no way to control the temperature. Why not have an option to use a mechanical adjustment for the temperature? You might not be able to control it precisely but you COULD have a thermometer in the stove that showed the temperature and then you could adjust the gas similar to the stove top. Yes it would be inconvenient but at least you could use it.

Now we come to the gas furnace. Here we have two problems. First, the thermostat is an electric part. But that doesn't have to be run by the power line. It could be battery operated. Even a rechargable battery that is normally powered up by the power line and then when the power goes out, it runs off the battery. They could even be replaceable batteries. But a thermostat is not a high power device. It could run off the battery for a long time.

The second furnace problem is harder to deal with. The water or air must be pumped around the house. But these are normally electric motors and can't run when the power fails. But these are not high powered motors. They could also run on batteries. I don't know exactly how powerful the pumps need to be but we're not talking about huge motors. It could be done.

 There is one shining example of a gas appliance that works during a power outage - a gas fireplace. At least ours does. When the power goes out and we are getting cold, we can light our fireplace's pilot light and then, miracle of miracles, there is an electric switch we can flip to turn on the flame! How do they do that? There is a thing called a thermopile that uses the heat of the flame to create a small electric current to open or close the gas to the fireplace that then lights from the pilot light. A thermopile doesn't create a lot of power but it is enough to control the temperature of an oven or the a furnace. Then the only thing remaining is to pump the hot air or water around the house. Here again, we can use a battery powered motor.

Anyway, when I find time, I'm going to invent them and you will see my name up there with the folks that invented the wheel and fire and all those other important things.

Yes, I've already missed a day

There is no excuse except that I forgot to post something yesterday. So, my great plans of starting out the new year by writing everyday the first week are disrupted. I'm going to write two entries today but that doesn't change the fact that I missed yesterday. Sometimes, there is no way to make up for something we failed to do.

In most cases, like this one, it's not that important. It's disappointing that I didn't keep to my plan yesterday but the world will keep spinning and no one is impacted by this. But other times it is more important. If you forget to pay a bill before it's due, you have to pay a penalty. If you don't say good bye to someone you won't see for a long time, you will regret it. If you fail to pick someone up at an agreed upon time, you can cause all sorts of problems. So, it's a good idea to get in the habit of keeping your word in everything. I just need to align the level of my disappointment with the level of the problem it causes. I am going to try to not overreact to the things I don't (or can't) do on time.

It's not just about data

The title of this post would shock the people at the company I used to work for. After all, our job was to make hardware and software that let you collect, store and make sense of data in the real world. It was all about the data. But just collecting data doesn't do any good unless you know how to use it. And it doesn't do other people any good if you haven't collected the correct data. If you are measuring the temperature of the ocean but never put your temperature sensor in the water, the data you have and write about and collect money for is useless and could lead to real harm.

This book, like any good book, is a mixture of a lot of disciplines from mathematics to economics and from psychology to philosophy. And it is very easy to understand. It gives you tools to use to not only make sense of data but to make sense of every day information. It will help you look through lies and sloppy thinking. It will help you uncover "fake news" and outright lies.

I find the rules set down by Mr. Hartford useful when I'm reading the paper or when I'm studying the Bible. When you are scanning YouTube trying to learn something new or looking to expand your knowledge about some subject, it is too easy to fall into the trap of believing the well edited and well organized presentations.

The first of ten rules is "Search Your Feelings". This chapter starts with a story about an art critic being fooled by a forgery. And because this critic was so respected, it was accepted by the larger art world as well. How had an expert been fooled? Because he wanted so badly to find a lost painting by the master Vermeer. And, as Mr. Holford points out, this is why we buy things we don't need and why we do things only to impress our friends. So, one of the first rules in making sense of statistics is really about human psychology. You have to not let your emotions cloud your judgement.

The second rule is "Ponder Your Personal Experience". When we see some statistic, sometimes it helps if we have some personal experience that makes us question the data. Not that we should just throw out any information that we can't verify ourselves but just let it be an impetus to look further. As someone once said, it's not the education or experience that makes a good scientist. Great scientific discoveries come from people who notice something and say, "Well, that's strange. How could that happen?" 

The third rule is "Avoid Premature Enumeration". He starts this chapter with a discussion of a study that looked into infant mortality in the United Kingdom. The rate was much different in different sections of the country. Could they look at what was being done inn the area where mortality was high and change their procedures to that of the area where the mortality rate was low? It turned out that most of the difference in mortality rates was the naming of various stages of gestation. In some areas, babies deaths were labeled as miscarriages instead of an infant dying. And if we want to gather statistics about "children", say what their interests are or what they like to read, don't we first need to define what we mean as a child? This happens a lot. We often think that to solve a problem, we need to jump right in and start measuring things and counting things. Our first step needs to be defining what we are looking at and what we are searching for.

I won't list all ten rules here. I hope I've gotten you interested enough to explore this book yourself. You will not be disappointed no matter what your job or hobby or life is like. Everyone should be given a copy of this book when they enter high school and then be taught to use these rules for the rest of their life.

Let's try this again

Here it is - the first day of 2023 and I'm going to make an attempt to start writing in this blog regularly - again.. I've taken breaks before but never for this long. I didn't post anything at all in 2022. My last post was in March of 2021 shortly after I had retired.

I really thought I'd be writing more after I retired. I have plenty of free time now and, in fact, I did write a few drafts but didn't finish them. There is no less to write about. I just need to focus. That has been my biggest problem since retiring - FOCUS. I see no deadlines in my life now. I feel I have all the time in the world. I keep putting things off because I can. It's a dangerous thing. We all dislike deadlines but if we don't have deadlines (of some sort), there is no push to finish projects.

So, I am going to make an attempt to write some every day or at least once a week to start. But there I go again - not following through. Let's just see if I can write something every day for a week. If I can do that, maybe there is hope for this blog. When I reach the end of the week (next Sunday - my wife and my anniversary), I'll reassess this blog. What I like most about this blog is going back and reading old posts. It is fascinating to see what I was thinking about and doing before. And the farther back in time, the more interesting it is.

There is no picture in this post. That's another thing I hope to accomplish - taking more photos so I will have pictures to help illuminate the subject of what I'm writing about. I used to take tons of pictures but now it is rare for me to take a picture. Usually, it has been so long between pictures that I have to charge the battery of my camera first. 

Here are some things I may possibly write about in the upcoming days and weeks. My children are now 26 and 20 years old. They have matured in ways I could never imagine. One of them is working two job and the other is in college and is engaged to be married. I love my wife more than ever and love that I have so much time to spend with her. The church we belong to is growing and helping people in our community and around the world. Our minister continues to give fascinating sermons which I need to tell you about. New people continue to grow their faith in Jesus and give their lives to God. I've read a lot of new books that I should tell you about, too.

That's all for tonight. See you tomorrow.